Applications of Sheaves


Book Description




Sheaf Theory through Examples


Book Description

An approachable introduction to elementary sheaf theory and its applications beyond pure math. Sheaves are mathematical constructions concerned with passages from local properties to global ones. They have played a fundamental role in the development of many areas of modern mathematics, yet the broad conceptual power of sheaf theory and its wide applicability to areas beyond pure math have only recently begun to be appreciated. Taking an applied category theory perspective, Sheaf Theory through Examples provides an approachable introduction to elementary sheaf theory and examines applications including n-colorings of graphs, satellite data, chess problems, Bayesian networks, self-similar groups, musical performance, complexes, and much more. With an emphasis on developing the theory via a wealth of well-motivated and vividly illustrated examples, Sheaf Theory through Examples supplements the formal development of concepts with philosophical reflections on topology, category theory, and sheaf theory, alongside a selection of advanced topics and examples that illustrate ideas like cellular sheaf cohomology, toposes, and geometric morphisms. Sheaf Theory through Examples seeks to bridge the powerful results of sheaf theory as used by mathematicians and real-world applications, while also supplementing the technical matters with a unique philosophical perspective attuned to the broader development of ideas.




Categories and Sheaves


Book Description

Categories and sheaves appear almost frequently in contemporary advanced mathematics. This book covers categories, homological algebra and sheaves in a systematic manner starting from scratch and continuing with full proofs to the most recent results in the literature, and sometimes beyond. The authors present the general theory of categories and functors, emphasizing inductive and projective limits, tensor categories, representable functors, ind-objects and localization.




Sheaves in Topology


Book Description

Constructible and perverse sheaves are the algebraic counterpart of the decomposition of a singular space into smooth manifolds. This introduction to the subject can be regarded as a textbook on modern algebraic topology, treating the cohomology of spaces with sheaf (as opposed to constant) coefficients. The author helps readers progress quickly from the basic theory to current research questions, thoroughly supported along the way by examples and exercises.




Perverse Sheaves and Applications to Representation Theory


Book Description

Since its inception around 1980, the theory of perverse sheaves has been a vital tool of fundamental importance in geometric representation theory. This book, which aims to make this theory accessible to students and researchers, is divided into two parts. The first six chapters give a comprehensive account of constructible and perverse sheaves on complex algebraic varieties, including such topics as Artin's vanishing theorem, smooth descent, and the nearby cycles functor. This part of the book also has a chapter on the equivariant derived category, and brief surveys of side topics including étale and ℓ-adic sheaves, D-modules, and algebraic stacks. The last four chapters of the book show how to put this machinery to work in the context of selected topics in geometric representation theory: Kazhdan-Lusztig theory; Springer theory; the geometric Satake equivalence; and canonical bases for quantum groups. Recent developments such as the p-canonical basis are also discussed. The book has more than 250 exercises, many of which focus on explicit calculations with concrete examples. It also features a 4-page “Quick Reference” that summarizes the most commonly used facts for computations, similar to a table of integrals in a calculus textbook.




Intersection Homology & Perverse Sheaves


Book Description

This textbook provides a gentle introduction to intersection homology and perverse sheaves, where concrete examples and geometric applications motivate concepts throughout. By giving a taste of the main ideas in the field, the author welcomes new readers to this exciting area at the crossroads of topology, algebraic geometry, analysis, and differential equations. Those looking to delve further into the abstract theory will find ample references to facilitate navigation of both classic and recent literature. Beginning with an introduction to intersection homology from a geometric and topological viewpoint, the text goes on to develop the sheaf-theoretical perspective. Then algebraic geometry comes to the fore: a brief discussion of constructibility opens onto an in-depth exploration of perverse sheaves. Highlights from the following chapters include a detailed account of the proof of the Beilinson–Bernstein–Deligne–Gabber (BBDG) decomposition theorem, applications of perverse sheaves to hypersurface singularities, and a discussion of Hodge-theoretic aspects of intersection homology via Saito’s deep theory of mixed Hodge modules. An epilogue offers a succinct summary of the literature surrounding some recent applications. Intersection Homology & Perverse Sheaves is suitable for graduate students with a basic background in topology and algebraic geometry. By building context and familiarity with examples, the text offers an ideal starting point for those entering the field. This classroom-tested approach opens the door to further study and to current research.




Lectures on Algebraic Geometry I


Book Description

This book and the following second volume is an introduction into modern algebraic geometry. In the first volume the methods of homological algebra, theory of sheaves, and sheaf cohomology are developed. These methods are indispensable for modern algebraic geometry, but they are also fundamental for other branches of mathematics and of great interest in their own. In the last chapter of volume I these concepts are applied to the theory of compact Riemann surfaces. In this chapter the author makes clear how influential the ideas of Abel, Riemann and Jacobi were and that many of the modern methods have been anticipated by them.




Cohomology of Sheaves


Book Description

This text exposes the basic features of cohomology of sheaves and its applications. The general theory of sheaves is very limited and no essential result is obtainable without turn ing to particular classes of topological spaces. The most satis factory general class is that of locally compact spaces and it is the study of such spaces which occupies the central part of this text. The fundamental concepts in the study of locally compact spaces is cohomology with compact support and a particular class of sheaves,the so-called soft sheaves. This class plays a double role as the basic vehicle for the internal theory and is the key to applications in analysis. The basic example of a soft sheaf is the sheaf of smooth functions on ~n or more generally on any smooth manifold. A rather large effort has been made to demon strate the relevance of sheaf theory in even the most elementary analysis. This process has been reversed in order to base the fundamental calculations in sheaf theory on elementary analysis.




Geometry of Vector Sheaves


Book Description

This two-volume monograph obtains fundamental notions and results of the standard differential geometry of smooth (CINFINITY) manifolds, without using differential calculus. Here, the sheaf-theoretic character is emphasised. This has theoretical advantages such as greater perspective, clarity and unification, but also practical benefits ranging from elementary particle physics, via gauge theories and theoretical cosmology (`differential spaces'), to non-linear PDEs (generalised functions). Thus, more general applications, which are no longer `smooth' in the classical sense, can be coped with. The treatise might also be construed as a new systematic endeavour to confront the ever-increasing notion that the `world around us is far from being smooth enough'. Audience: This work is intended for postgraduate students and researchers whose work involves differential geometry, global analysis, analysis on manifolds, algebraic topology, sheaf theory, cohomology, functional analysis or abstract harmonic analysis.




Geometry of Principal Sheaves


Book Description

The book provides a detailed introduction to the theory of connections on principal sheaves in the framework of Abstract Differential Geometry (ADG). This is a new approach to differential geometry based on sheaf theoretic methods, without use of ordinary calculus. This point of view complies with the demand of contemporary physics to cope with non-smooth models of physical phenomena and spaces with singularities. Starting with a brief survey of the required sheaf theory and cohomology, the exposition then moves on to differential triads (the abstraction of smooth manifolds) and Lie sheaves of groups (the abstraction of Lie groups). Having laid the groundwork, the main part of the book is devoted to the theory of connections on principal sheaves, incorporating connections on vector and associated sheaves. Topics such as the moduli sheaf of connections, classification of principal sheaves, curvature, flat connections and flat sheaves, Chern-Weil theory, are also treated. The study brings to light fundamental notions and tools of the standard differential geometry which are susceptible of the present abstraction, and whose role remains unexploited in the classical context, because of the abundance of means therein. However, most of the latter are nonsensical in ADG.